That fact about Jack always slipped out of her mind. How could she when she sees a little child most of the time?
She massaged her temples. "Just to be clear, do you think you could tell me about Jack the Ripper?" She addressed Jack. "Why don't you go play for a while, Jack? Mother and father will have a private talk."
"You better not tell any lies to mother, father!" Jack said. But she did leave them alone.
"Good child, that one," Winter said. "I find it difficult to think that she's a serial killer."
"Jack the Ripper, the real one, was never caught," Jekyll said. "Any Servant incarnation is but one of many theories and assumptions made on Jack the Ripper."
"Which one is hers?"
"An amalgamation of children that had been abandoned or aborted." Jekyll looked exhausted. "I cannot say if that meant every child or just the ones from London and from our time."
"That… that sounds harsh," Winter replied.
"London of my time, Winter, was home. I will always have a soft spot and even preference for it. But it isn't without its flaws. Don't get me started on the colonies."
Winter managed to catch Hyde take over for a while. "Those uncivilized barbarians." It had to be Hyde; Jekyll was too kind for that.
"Your home was a conqueror once?" she asked.
"The Empire where the Sun never sets," Jekyll said, with a hint of pride. "We were simply ahead of the curve for the most part and we took full advantage of that. Of course, we had our problems. You could say that Jack the Ripper was one of the symptoms of the new illness that came out of it."
"Industrialization," Winter concluded. "Mantle and Atlas is no exception to that."
Jekyll nodded. "Rapid growth, new technology, unprecedented consequences, all of it made things rather volatile depending on where you are. I was… fortunate in my place. Jack's? Not so much."
"And the women?"
"In that time? Money was a necessity. For women, perhaps, they see no other means beside it. They've turned to prostitution. They have to earn a living somehow."
"And Jack? The historical one? What reason would Jack have?"
"Nobody knows for sure," Jekyll said. "Not even I know and as far as I'm aware, neither Scotland Yard nor that consultant detective had been able to solve that case. It was a terror in all of London. As for myself, well… I had Hyde to deal with."
Jekyll leaned forward. He looked around him as if he was about to divulge secret information.
"Mary Ann Nichols, AKA Polly, is considered the first of Jack's victims."
Winter listened intently on Jekyll's retellings. The shadowy, fog-filled streets of east London, contrasted to Jekyll's more central location. The historical Jack the Ripper, the notorious serial killer, had no known motive. Though five were considered to be this canonical five, Jekyll mentioned that the murders could go as high as eleven, possibly higher. Such was the elusiveness of the serial killer. Winter's eyes went wide when Jekyll mentioned that even the law enforcement of that time resigned at their failure. Winter couldn't imagine the insanity that it could induce on one's psyche, constantly being outplayed by your opponent.
"Some say he was a doctor with his medical knowledge," Jekyll said. "Others say he was a butcher. Still, others say he was a barber of sorts. Point is that Jack had a multitude of different candidates. For all I know, I could have been one as Hyde without ever knowing."
"And what of our Jack?" Winter asked. "You said that she is an amalgamation?"
Jekyll nodded. "An amalgamation of abandoned children. Looking back at it, we had the most apt backstory when we picked her up from our mission. However, while I say abandoned, it would be more accurate to say that they have been aborted."
"Aborted?" Winter nearly raised her voice.
"It is for that reason that Jack grows attached especially to mothers. She wants to go back to her mother."
Winter and Jekyll stayed quiet for those minutes. Jekyll appeared to be waiting for any questions before continuing. Even when they were none, he waited. Winter wouldn't be able to hear them anyway. Jekyll had yet to turn down the call, even as there were disturbances on his side. Someone was calling for him. He motioned them that he was busy. The sight of feathers entering that room was evidence that it was Peach. Jekyll closed his eyes as he visibly tried to ignore the commotion on his end.
Jekyll waited for a while longer before Winter finally managed to get herself back together.
"Should I be concerned?"
Jekyll sounded relief. Chuckles relieved any stress in his body. "You're doing better than what anyone could have asked for. I suppose it helps that Fria had been the first one and promised Jack both parents after passing on. As far as I can see, Jack has more than she could have asked for." He held his own arm. "I wish I was there myself, to be honest. I know it's hard enough on you balancing three things at once."
"No. No." Winter shook her head. "I can handle it."
"I know you can, Winter." Jekyll shook his head.
"Good."
"But that doesn't mean that you should. You weren't the only one who promised to take care of Jack, remember?"
Winter bit her lip. "You…" her voice lost its strength. "You have Ozpin and your duties there."
"And you have the general and your duties there. Not to mention, you're a Schnee whose patriarch is running for a seat in the council. Those alone would be quite the burden to ask on people and you're adding more on top of it."
Jekyll put down his glasses. Winter could see the green of his eyes. It really was Jekyll.
"Not just for Jack's sake, not just for the mission, but also for a good friend, I'm not letting you take it all alone, knowing that I could carry some of it myself."
Winter gave in. "Should I be envious when you do find someone to really settle down with?"
Jekyll chuckled. "As if anyone would take me as I am, knowing what I am."
"Jekyll…"
"I will not deny the things I have done, Winter," Jekyll. "As Hyde, I have committed my fair share of crimes."
"But these five? The canonical five? Have you done anything about them? Surely not."
"I cannot say for certain. As Hyde, I have never exactly taken the time to commit to memory the horrendous acts I've committed on others. I might have but such things are reserved only for Jack the Ripper." His face went down. "I'm sorry. I know that this isn't the best means of answering your questions. Had Amber been along, she might have offered more."
"Had she dreamed of you?" Winter moved back to the topic at hand.
Jekyll shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I can at least assure you that the inverse could also happen, and I haven't seen anything that I could definitely say it was Amber's instead of mine."
Yet more things that Winter was being introduced to. "This is going to be one exhausting Vytal Festival."
Before Winter could end the call, Jekyll asked, "is this how you wish for it to end? You looked worse than when we began."
"It's fine." Winter did her best to give an assuring smile. "Only that I should be prepared the next time I would see a dream."
"Tell me when it happens. I'll do my best to walk you through it."
"You wish to solve the Ripper case?" Winter joked.
"Walk through London, Winter." Jekyll still chuckled. "If a certain consultant detective hadn't solved the case, I doubt I would be able to do the same." There was a moment of pause. "Though, now that I think about it, I have a bad feeling that someone might have been involved. But it is just me though."
"Perhaps we could talk about those other people you've met in life, sometime. If you and Jack came from the same time, who's to say that others might not?"
"I can assure you of two others at least; one of them is the detective. The other is a criminal." There was a sour note on the latter. Someone whom Jekyll had known, for sure.
The video call ended there. Winter ended up wearing her own mask in front of Jekyll, the mask of someone who didn't want to be a burden. He already burdens himself too much with that responsibility he took, the least that Winter could do is to lighten it and carry her own. If not, at least for Jack, Jekyll wouldn't be carrying that burden alone, not that Jack was going to be a burden. If anything, it was Winter that was going to be one. The Schnee household and name carries with it an expectation, expectations that Jack was currently called to fulfill.
Part of Jack's education was literacy. A difficult task that Winter had undertaken for herself. Klein may have offered to do so but Winter took it upon herself to try it. Klein was still there offering assistance and experience. For someone of Jack's seeming age, she was rather behind the others. Given the background that is Jack's cover story, it should be expected.
"You've changed quite a lot, miss Schnee," commented Klein.
"Have I, Klein?" Winter asked.
"You have always pursued the duties of a soldier. Now, you pursue duties of a different kind."
"Shouldn't that have been the next step?"
"I suppose it should. But I can't help but be a little curious as to what it was that you have seen out there, compared to any other mission you have undertaken. You have seen abandoned villages, ghost towns, and even took home a few refugees yourself, some of them with their own children, orphaned."
Winter had come close to revealing everything about Salem and the Maidens. But she successfully held her tongue back.
Instead, she said, "it was different than anything else I've ever seen, Klein. It is one thing to see devastation and being too late to prevent it. It is one thing to see hardship with so few survivors. But there?" She shook her head. She hoped she was acting well. "It… it changes you… eventually."
Klein nodded. "Very well." He turned around. "I will not ask any further unless you wish it." He paused as he made it to the door. "Oh, and miss Winter. I did raise you and your siblings. I know your ticks and tells more than even your parents, though it means little. Best not to be a liar in front of little Jack, hmm?"
Winter sighed. Of course, Klein saw through her.
Jack was reading out loud the colored, picture book. Both left and right pages had a single sentence along with the corresponding image: the happiest green frog known to Remnant relaxing on the largest lily pad in a pond that is much closer to a deep puddle. The colors were enough to drawn Jack's attention and the sentences were a start.
The attention span was always going to be a problem. With access to scrolls, Jack was already exposed to the digital content across Remnant's net. Whitley may have sworn against this brain-rot as he calls it, but that didn't mean that Jack wouldn't see anything indecent. What even is brain-rot?
She paused at the thought. If that dream she had was anything to go by, Jack was intimately aware of the indecencies that plagued human society. In that one regard, Jack is far more of an adult than anyone in the Schnee manor.
After reading, there came the writing. Jack was a difficult one to handle there. Her writing was crude and Winter wasn't quite sure on how to approach it. From what she could remember of her own time, it was mostly a case of writing in the tutor's own penmanship. It had been a while since Winter had even written anything beyond her name and signature.
Winter was looking through her scroll. "Graphing paper? I suppose the lines would help Jack get used to her points." She looked through Jack's attempt at writing her own name; it was horrendously inconsistent with those strokes, with difference even on the same letters when it came to the family name.
She took a deep breath. Slowly. She'll have to do this slowly and patiently. Jack would be home-schooled for the most part. It was a good thing that Jekyll would be around. Outside of being a huntress and specialist, Winter wasn't so sure on what to do for her.
Maybe I should ask that partner of his too, Peach, she thought.
The lessons for that day had finished. Winter wasn't about to subject Jack to all sorts of different subjects, especially since not all of them would be immediately useful to Jack. Most of them would be rejected anyway.
Her thoughts on what to do next were halted when she arrived at the doorway that led to the gardens. As always, there was Willow Schnee, already passed out from drink. She had been absent when Jacques announced his run for office and had been absent even for Jack's education. If anything, it was Jack that was being present as she was right there by the table, peeking out from the table. Jack was poking an unconscious Willow.
"Jack," Winter said. "Do not disturb your grandmother."
"Okay!" Jack complied and left the two of them there.
Winter stood there, still and waiting, expecting. There was something that she should say but nothing was coming to her. Not like that Willow would be able to hear anything about it.
But then, Willow began to stir. Rather, her body began to stir. To say that Willow was waking from her drunken slumber would be as accurate as saying that she was being resurrected from the dead; Willow Schnee looked absolutely hideous.
Hair, unkempt. Clothing, disheveled. Eye-bags have their own eye-bags. Makeup, non-existent. Wrinkles, too many to count. Headache, incoming. Willow Schnee buried herself in her hands. Instinctively, Willow reached out for another bottle only to be disappointed once it had been emptied.
Winter took her seat directly across Willow. There was a moment's disappointment when the foot of the chair struck some bottles still left behind, hidden in the growing grass. At least, Willow wasn't careless enough to just let the bottles break.
She was tapping her fingers as Willow had yet to even acknowledge her presence. Willow was more focused on the finding some other bottle before realizing that Winter was even here.
Klein had arrived. Winter raised her hand.
"Understood, miss Winter," Klein replied. He left and came back with a can of Pear juice, one of their means of dealing with hangovers. Right now, Willow needed something other than alcohol in her system.
"Drink, mother," Winter said. She even went the effort of opening the can itself.
The taste of it must have quite the effect seeing as Willow downed the whole can without much of an effort. Winter sat there and waited until Willow managed to recover.
"Winter?" Willow asked. There was a moment of worry there. "What brings you here?"
"I'm not here to join in your drinking, mother," Winter replied. Relief soon painted Willow's face. She cared that much at least. Winter took a minute to find the words. She decided to start there. "Have you… have you noticed anything recently?"
"You mean what your father has done? Has Jacques done anything new yet?"
"What I have done, mother. Father can wait. I've… been wondering if you're at least aware of what has happened to me this past few months."
Winter took a breath. Willow's was dropping from the drowsiness.
"I am officially a mother myself."
The empty can in Willow's hand fell with a loud sound. "I am truly sorry, Winter. But there is nothing I can do—"
"It wasn't one of father's arranged engagements. I adopted one while I was on a mission. I have shared custody over the child with doctor Henry Jekyll."
"Never heard of that name before. From what family is he from?"
"His own. He's a fellow huntsman, one whom has been in this household for many weeks now. Even tutored Whitley on business and law."
"He must have done something to gain your father's approval."
"He hasn't. Father still doesn't approve of him."
"I'm sorry, Winter. But why tell me this?"
Winter's frustration was building. "Because Jekyll and I are now new parents with little in the way of experience. I don't expect anything from father but I, at least, remember a time when you were a caring mother once. I'm not expecting Jack to have the best grandmother in the world, but the least I was hoping for is that you'd at least help me, being a mother yourself."
She had to exercise great restraint, not because of the Schnee name, not because of the fact that Willow was still her mother, but because of the Maiden. She couldn't reveal it here, even to them. Was it that bad that none of those things even came to her until after?
Hangover eyes stared into Winter's own. But then, those eyes closed and Willow shook her head.
"You're already doing better than I am," Willow said. "You've… you've become stronger Winter. I'm sure you can carry this burden well, and I wish you and this Henry Jekyll the best."
Winter bit her lip. She nodded once. She stood up. "I'll have Klein give another bottle." She walked away. But she was stopped when Willow called out.
"Not today, Winter," Willow said. "Perhaps, later tonight."
She paused. Winter didn't look back. "Tonight."
Willow Schnee was left there. Winter didn't bother to look through the windows. Winter walked about the empty Schnee manor halls with her head down, unfitting for a proud, soldier of Atlas, unfitting for a Schnee. She pulled out her scroll. Schnee. Winter Schnee, Atlas specialist, Winter maiden, mother to one Jack the Ripper Schnee-Jekyll.
"Schnee-Jekyll," Winter said. "Winter Schnee-Jekyll. Winter Jekyll."
There was a couch. Winter laid there, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling above them. Schnee. She herself taught Weiss the importance of living up to the family name. But now, she's not quite sure of it anymore.
"Winter Jekyll." There was shame in her voice. There was shame in her sigh. "I just want an out." She shook her head. "And I'm latching onto him; it's not good. It's not what he should have."
The glass reflected a little of her reflection. But Winter didn't see herself on it. She couldn't recognize the person there.
"Just as he does…" she asked. "I suppose I have my own Hyde. Only, my Hyde is quite out there in public."
"Mother?" Jack interrupted her thoughts. "Is everything okay?"
Winter had an easy time seeing Jack as a child. Despite the dream, she could only really see Jack as the innocent child. Besides, it wasn't Jack that she saw on that side of London. It was Hyde.
"Just a little tired, sweetie," Winter replied. She did her hardest to smile for Jack, her Jack. Hers and Jekyll's. "Say, how do you feel about a snack? No sweets though, we've already have enough around here." They still had some boxes to go through.
"Hotdog!"
Winter put out her hand. "Then, let's go." She then remembered about their situation. Father would throw a fit if they were seen in public like that. "But first, let's get you dressed up, yes?"
/-/
Jekyll stared at the black screen that stared him back. Even as Winter assured him that everything was alright on her end, he couldn't help but be worried.
Peach knocked on the door. The door slowly opened with a creeping squeak. "So," she asked. "Scheduled meeting got longer than expected. Anything I should know about?"
"Not sure on the should part, but Winter has been having dreams about Jack's life," Jekyll replied. "It's a thing that can happen between Masters—Maidens and Servants. I'm a little surprised that Winter inherited that one as well, though I don't recall Fria ever having any. Remind me to ask Amber sometime."
"Is it going to be a problem?"
"Depends on the Heroic Spirit." Jekyll waved a hand. "The problem part is that Winter has Jack the Ripper for hers." He then told Peach a summary of Jack the Ripper, even including the part where Winter saw Hyde instead. Peach, predictably, raised an eyebrow at that.
Peach whistled. "So you could have been both."
"I am as much as a candidate as any other individual. Difference there is that I confessed to my own crimes… sort of."
He turned around to face her. He saw the horrid state that she was in.
"What did I miss?"
"Only that the preparations for our little mini-tournament are all set. Participating students will duke it out in Glynda's classroom. Top representatives per year level will represent the school in the tournament."
"And you're telling me this because?" Jekyll didn't want to reminded of that.
"Because Glynda is playing referee. Us at MGHT will be playing judges, grading the students' performance in case the time limit runs out."
"There's a time limit?"
"There's a lot of students, across the years no less. We start next week."
"Not sure how we'll be able to do all that in Glynda's Combat Class."
"That's because classes are all called-off for that week, except maybe Harold's. One day is dedicated to one year. Last day is a ceremony."
The door closed but Jekyll stayed inside. Ozpin had yet to tell them about Salem and this truth of his. Even Jekyll had been kept from it. He would ask Fran but she was as protective of Ozpin as though she were in a legitimate Holy Grail War.
Does that make me a bad Servant considering I'm not for Amber? Jack was certainly protective enough of Winter. Fran for Ozpin. Whoever Salem's side had summoned had already acted. He heard that Vlad was a frequent visitor to Raven's prison. Vacuo's Caster still refused to reveal herself and no images were being shared online; that Caster was treating this as a genuine Grail War.
He leaned back. His eyes were on the ceiling above him. Four other Servants. Each one, he was confident, could easily best him, even if he let himself go to Hyde. He pulled out his dagger and cut himself on the finger. A single drop of blood dripped down. The wound healed as aura sealed it shut.
Jekyll may have been summoned into Remnant, just like the others. But he was the prototype, with mistakes and problems that the later ones had no issues in the slightest. The rest ran on magic of the Maidens or Salem or Ozpin's cane. Him? He had to become a living thing, a living person, just to accommodate Amber's loss of power in that moment of desperation of hers.
His eyes were soon drawn to a copy of his dissertation. He wasn't lying when he had cheated in using his understanding of Heroic Spirits as a means of furthering the studies of the soul. Remnant was severely lacking in research in this field despite its abundant use among huntsmen.
The proposal that souls could be manipulated had not only been a bit controversial but also a curiosity, one that could not be realized in his lifetime. The technology simply did not accommodate for such a thing.
No technology made public, Jekyll thought. Amber's pod had proven itself to be a step in that direction, only that one was still rather crude and not at all efficient. Not technology at all.
His companions may see value in his mind but he couldn't grant them that forever. Jekyll had experience when it comes to the intellectual, and he knew for certain that he wasn't the only one. If their enemies had their own brains, especially one that could surpass Jekyll's own, he would be as useless there just as he is right now as a Servant.
If I find a way or if Ozpin would let me. I can at least relieve Winter of one problem. I'm sure Jack would like that as well.
If he didn't lose himself to his own sins, then things would be lighter for those two. Neither of them had to worry about the Hyde part of him running too loose.
AN: This fic made me play around with the idea that Fate's historical Jack the Ripper might be an existing Servant. With Jekyll existing at the same time as Sherlock, I am now asking if Moriarty had a part in that. Besides the canon of Jekyll, Sherlock, and Moriarty having interacted, their chronological placement also allows for Jack to have encountered them.
